Dave Darrin's Third Year at Annapolis eBook

“It seems to me,” remarked Dan, glancing
across at his chum, “that you and I, David,
little giant, have been here at Annapolis almost ever
since we first donned trousers to please the family.”

“It is a long time back to Gridley days,”
assented Darrin.

Then Dan went on reading.

“Of course you and Dan are bound that the Navy
shall win this year,” Dick had written.
“As for Greg and me, we are equally determined
that the Army shall win. As if the resolutions
on either side had much of anything to do with it!
It will seem strange for us four, divided between the
two sides, to be fighting frantically for the victory.
However, if Greg and I go up against you two on the
gridiron we won’t show you any mercy, and we
know that we shall receive none from you. Each
man must do all that’s possibly in him for the
glory of his own side of the United Service!
Here’s to the better eleven—­Army or
Navy!”

“I’ll bet Dick and Greg will give us all
the tussle they know how, if they get near us in the
fight,” nodded Dan, passing the letter back.

“Well, they’re bound to, aren’t
they?” demanded Darrin. “And now,
Danny boy, we simply must stow all gab and get busy
with our lessons. We’ve a recitation between
now and the afternoon practice.”

“And the game, to-morrow!” breathed Midshipman
Dalzell fervently.

The morrow’s game was to be against the University
of Pennsylvania eleven. The opposition team being
an unusually good one that year, the Navy’s
gridiron pets were preparing to strain every nerve
in the hope of victory.

In that afternoon’s practice Dave and Dan showed
up better than ever. Farley and Page, too, were
coming along splendidly, while Midshipman Joyce was
proving himself all but a joy to exacting Hepson.

But when the morrow came U.P. carried away the game
to the tune of five to nothing, and the Navy goat
wept. Dave and Dan made several brilliant plays,
but the Navy average both of size and skill was somewhat
below that of the older, bigger college men.

Other games followed fast now, and the Navy eleven
and its subs. had plenty of work cut out for them.
Up to the time of the Army-Navy game, the middies
had a bright slate of eighty per cent. of victories.
Dave and Dan had the pleasure of reading, in the “Army
and Navy Journal,” that they were considered
the strongest men on the left flank that the Navy
had been, able to show in ten years.

“When we go up against the Army,” Hepson
informed Dave and Dan, “I don’t know whether
you’ll play at left or right. It will all
depend on where the Army puts Prescott and Holmes.
Friends of ours who have watched the play at West
Point tell me that Prescott and Holmes are armored
terrors on the gridiron.”